Dead Eye: A Gray Man Novel

Ex-CIA master assassin Court Gentry has always prided himself on his ability to disappear at will, to fly below the radar and exist in the shadows - to survive as the near-mythical Gray Man. But when he takes revenge upon a former employer who betrayed him, he exposes himself to something he’s never had to face before. A killer who is just like him. Code-named Dead Eye, Russell Whitlock is a graduate of the same ultra-secret Autonomous Asset Program that trained and once controlled Gentry.

A whiz-bang, non-stop caper with multiple angles of pursuit. The Gray man appears to have met his match and maybe had too much of a peek into his creation this time out. This time around Gentry is getting tired and manhunt technology is evolving faster than his skills of evasion, but he is the Gray Man and he is the best.I'll not going to nit-pic this fine novel of intrigue and sometimes over-the-top brutality. It is superb escapist writing and I'm all for that!

The Burning Room

In the LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit, not many murder victims die almost a decade after the crime. So when a man succumbs to complications from being shot by a stray bullet nine years earlier, Bosch catches a case in which the body is still fresh, but all other evidence is virtually nonexistent. Now Bosch and rookie Detective Lucia Soto, are tasked with solving what turns out to be a highly charged, politically sensitive case.

The plodding monotone of this reader, combined with the stiff, seemingly amateurish writing, made this book a farce relative to Connelly's previous work.At times, I thought it was a joke on all of us as the characters went through the motions in such a contrived, uninteresting manner.Perhaps he accidentally published the outline. Very strange and boring.

City of Fire

When a vibrant young woman is found in bed by her hotshot businessman husband, carved from belly to throat with a very sharp knife, the elite Robbery-Homicide Division of the LAPD responds in full force. Best-case scenario for lead Detective Lena Gamble: Nikki Brant's husband killed her, case closed, and on to the next crime scene before the ravenous Hollywood media can get their lurid tabloid machinery up and running.

I will have to buy the print version as this reader was so poor I could not finish, not even close. Her inability to differentiate between characters made following impossible. Deadpan, monotone inflection left any emphasis flat and meaningless. It sounded as if she had just learned to read.The book may have some value, but was wasted by this narration!

Saints of the Shadow Bible: Inspector Rebus, Book 19

Rebus and Malcolm Fox go head-to-head when a 30-year-old murder investigation resurfaces, forcing Rebus to confront crimes of the past. Rebus is back on the force, albeit with a demotion and a chip on his shoulder. He is investigating a car accident when news arrives that a case from 30 years ago is being reopened. Rebus's team from those days is suspected of helping a murderer escape justice to further their own ends.

It takes intense concentration for me to follow this narrator. He is likely very accurate in his depictions of the various regional accents, but at times I could barely follow the dialogue.Also, the incessant revisiting of past incidents between the cop-characters consumes far too much of Rankin's books. This time, it went over the top for me and became so redundant it made me wince before giving up on the book. This element has been beaten to death by Rankin and I find it tiresome and distracting to the extreme.

Rankin is a talented writer and Rebus may have run out his usefulness as the lead. I am afraid the Siobhan Clarke character lacks the gravitas to carry a series. Ian, look elsewhere for a new protagonist. Your wonderful writing needs a new field to plow!

Lost

Michael Robotham's Suspect, hailed as "a lightning-paced debut" by Entertainment Weekly, was an international best seller that raised the bar for thrillers. Now two characters from that acclaimed novel, Detective Vincent Ruiz and psychologist Joe O'Loughlin, return for the electrifying Lost. When Detective Ruiz is pulled from the Thames, he has a bullet in his leg, a photograph of a missing (and presumed dead) girl in his pocket, and absolutely no memory of what happened.

Michael Robotham can just plain write. His character vibrate with plausibility as the work their way into credibility and resonance with the reader. Flawed but tenacious as a terrier, DI Lewis will not cease his journey for justice no matter how formidable the resistance or nagging his occasional self-doubt. The tension in this plot was particularly meaningful to me as I once suffered Temporary Global Amnesia and could relate to this scary predicament. Dauntless, though fired, publicly shamed and admonished, he, with his pal Joe, unravel this tightly woven suspense filled story with the grace of a Maestro.

I rarely give 5 stars and felt I had run out of quality writers in this genre. Robotham is a winner!

Resistant

They fight without conscience or remorse. Their only job is to kill. They are the most ruthless enemy we have ever faced. And they are one millionth our size. When Dr. Lou Welcome fills in last minute for his boss at a national conference in Atlanta he brings along his best friend, Cap Duncan. But an accident turns tragic when Cap injures his leg while running. Surgeons manage to save the leg, but the open wound is the perfect breeding ground for a deadly microbial invader committed to eating Cap alive from the inside out.

The Purity of Vengeance: A Department Q Novel

International superstar Jussi Adler-Olsen, with more than fourteen million copies of his books sold worldwide, returns with the fourth book in his New York Times best-selling Department Q series, about a perplexing cold case with sinister modern-day consequences. In 1987, Nete Hermansen plans revenge on those who abused her in her youth, including Curt Wad, a charismatic surgeon who was part of a movement to sterilize wayward girls in 1950s Denmark.

Jussi can certainly turn a phrase and his translator did an excellent job of smoothing the idiosyncratic differences of grammar and language. If this is not accomplished in a manner that not only translates the words while at the same time keeping the timing and rhythm of the narrative in tact, all is easily lost.The quirky cast has taken on more charm and gravitas in this new tale and my attendant affection for the folks at Department Q has grown immensely. Assad in particular has become a major enigma himself as his mysterious past seeps into the spotlight. Rose and her poly-personality have lent yet another level of colorful insight to the chase.Neo-nazism, as horrific as it is, was handled well in this context as seeds of it's murky, murderous sadism still may creep into porous, at times naïve, democracies by way of sketchy intellects endeavoring to place themselves as superior to the misfortunate victims of its subliminal presence in modern societies.More from "Q", Jussi and Bravo!!

Aliens using human hosts is not a new idea. The visible, unmitigated violence seems to somehow be ignored by all but the lone, mousey female scientist that suddenly becomes an unstoppable force in the nick of time to save the planet.There, now that just saved you all 11 hours of time better spent on new ideas, cleverly portrayed. This book is fine if you're a freshly pubescent male, not so sure about the rest of us.

Breaking Point: A Joe Pickett Novel Book 13

The recipient of Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity Awards, New York Times best-selling author C. J. Box has won almost every honor in his field. In Breaking Point, Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett is glad to catch up with old friend Lyle Pendergast, but then the man goes missing and is named a suspect in the death of two EPA employees. All signs point to Lyle’s guilt, but the more Joe digs into the case, the more he realizes he’s stepped into the middle of a deadly power play.

With friend/fugitive Nate sidelined for nearly the entire story, Joe had to grin and bear it through this interesting tale of corruption in an US Government Agency, murder, and persecution setting the scene for a manhunt that includes even Joe's archenemy, the ex-sherriff.Joe is pushed to his seemingly bottomless limit of patience, but preservers against tremendous, some might say 'overdone', odds to emerge unemployed but victorious. Box writes cluttered novels that stretch plausibility, but entertain very well.I often feel like I am running out of quality authors in the mystery genre, but Box has made the cut as I near the end of this series quite satisfied.note: Publisher's Note is full of discrepancies and errors. Don't they proof-read their own stuff? Seriously embarrassing!

The Game: Victor the Assassin Series, #3

Victor the assassin is living a solitary, peaceful life in Iceland when he's drawn into a job for an unidentified Swiss broker. Having passed the test, he's introduced to a group of mercenaries and killers who are tasked to perform the ultimate assassination.In this group, Victor meets someone from his past, someone who recruited him to the life he now knows-someone he thought was dead. And when he wants out, it's too late-his former mentor has other plans for him...

Protagonist is so amoral and insensible and as he very rarely is moved by anything other than murder and the tactics related thereto, he becomes more than a little boring. Conditioned to believe that no matter how inescapable his current dilemma, the reader knows he will indeed escape, the books are missing a major element or contingency that make continuing palatable. He needs a (near) fatal flaw.

Red Knife: Cork O'Connor, Book 8

When the daughter of a powerful businessman dies as a result of her meth addiction, her father, strong-willed and brutal Buck Reinhardt, vows revenge. His target is the Red Boyz, a gang of Ojibwe youths accused of supplying the girl's fatal drug dose. When the head of the Red Boyz and his wife are murdered in a way that suggests execution, the Ojibwe gang mobilizes, and the citizens of Tamarack County brace themselves for war, white against red.

Consistency, Continuity, Talent with Voices.When signing a narrator for a series, the author or his agent should actually listen to the candidates. Folks that read series become accustomed to the narrator's interpretation of the work and changing mid-stream in this occasionally engaging story line simply ruined it for me. Mr. Schiner is particularly bad at simulating female voices and this alone left me nonplussed and a bit angry, two emotions that most authors would rather avoid.Shame on you, Krueger! This series is a bit thin and ponderous to begin with and this faux pas may spell an early end to my Cork O'Connor patronage.

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